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Talk:All about : Queen Elsa/@comment-74.99.65.62-20170416200211/@comment-74.99.65.62-20170707020955
Adaptational Heroism: The book portrays the Wicked Witch as a more sympathetic character than L. Frank Baum's original, and then the musical in turn portrays her as even more sympathetic than the original Wicked. In the book, she still becomes a heinous, tragically insane Villain Protagonist. The musical drops this characterization and puts her in a much more heroic light, making her a benevolent protagonist that's more misunderstood than she is evil. *Byronic Heroine : Elphaba is antisocial, emotionally sensitive, intelligent, against social norms, usually rude to people but affable with who is close to her. *Beautiful All Along: Depends on the version. In the book: **In the book it was stated that she had a long pointed chin, a rather mannish jaw, and Fiyero commented that she seemed to have a strange scar near her genitals. And that was before she went utterly insane and stopped sleeping all together, she probably looked like hell by then. Despite this, there are still indications that she's still rather good-looking, in an unconventional way—her nose, while strong, is described as lovely, and both Galinda and Fiyero tell her she's pretty at separate points. Galinda even goes on about Elphaba's beautiful hair, and says that there's an "exotic" type of beauty about her after a mini-makeover. Elpahaba is described as looking like her mom, but with green skin, at least once in the books. **In the musical, she only calls Elphaba pretty after "Popular", after she's Galinda-fied her with a flower and better hairstyling. Fiyero in the book refers to her as being "beautiful in her own way", meaning she's not conventionally attractive, and in the musical he finds her beautiful because he's "looking at things differently", which can be taken in multiple ways. The makeup designer flat-out states that "Elphaba is not ugly—she's supposed to be beautiful. People just hate her because she's green." Notably, her ensemble changes entirely for the latter part of the play, as she drops the bulky boots, glasses and drab school outfit and switches to an extravagantly crafted black gown instead. **Dark Is Not Evil: She may wear dark-colored clothes almost exclusively, have black hair, and seem Gothic, but she cares about her sister, Animals, and her anthropomorphic teacher and desperately wants to do good. This eventually leads to her Villainous Breakdown. **Friendless Background: She grew up shunned and isolated. Glinda becomes her first friend. **Hair-Trigger Temper: She tries to keep it under control, but it really does not take much to get Elphaba sniping and shouting at those around her, and we see her temper literally explode several times over the course of the story. No doubt she became this way through having to constantly deal with people's stares and jeers. **Heroic B.S.O.D.: ***The musical gives her a truly [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished epic] breakdown. ***In the book when Fiyero dies Elphaba goes into a coma, takes a vow of silence, and lived in a mauntery for almost a decade. **Hollywood Nerd: She gives off this image in her initial appearance, being a bookish girl who wears glasses and doesn't concern herself with trying to improve her appearance. **Human Mom, Non-Human Dad: Well, her father is human, but he's not an Oz native like her mother is. The fact she was born of parents from "two different worlds" was said to be the reason she was so magically gifted. Also, the tonic the Wizard had in his possession and implied to be his own creation was apparently responsible for her coloring. **Loners Are Freaks: The attitude towards her in college. With more than a little not-so-Fantastic Racism on the side. **Not Evil, Just Misunderstood: In the musical, this is definitely the case. In the novel, this is debatable, especially early-on. **Not Good with People: Type two. She is very snarky, has a hard time expressing her feelings and seems to get along much better with Animals and animals. **Power Incontinence: Elphaba is powerful for sure, but she... doesn't have the best command over her magic abilities. She can make things happen that many can only dream of doing, but aside from enchanting her broom to fly, we never see her cast a spell that exactly has the outcome she desires. This may have something to do with how her magic often reacts to her emotional outbursts. Even the broom wasn't intentional. She and Glinda expected her to grow wings like the monkeys. **Reality Warper: Implied, discussed and exhibited on one occasion. She seems to be able to make things happen unconsciously, without even thinking them. **Rebellious Spirit: In the book, she's almost rebellious for the sake of it — she insults almost everybody. In the musical, she becomes this once she meets the Wizard and realizes the depth of his corruption, declaring "I'm through with playing by the rules of someone else's game." and "I'm through accepting limits 'cause someone says they're so / Some things I cannot change, but till I try I'll never know!" She then begins her "campaign of terror." **Sugar and Ice Personality: She's outwardly snarky and standoffish, but she shows her warmer, compassionate side towards Animals, her sister, and people show grows fond of like Glinda and Fiyero. **Trauma Conga Line: Not even counting what went down in the first act, Elphaba has to deal with her beloved little sister not wanting to have anything to do with her anymore, saving the life of Boq by turning him into a tin-man who forever resents her for it thereafter, her favorite teacher losing his ability to speak human language, her sister getting murdered, getting into a nasty spat with Glinda that puts them at odds with each other, and finally, watching Fiyero be dragged off to be killed because of her, all the while being collectively despised and hunted for by the populace. Can anyone really blame her for going off the deep end by the time Dorothy came around? **The Unfavorite: In both book and musical, her father heavily prefers Nessarose. **Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Yes, the Wicked Witch of the West was once a friendly, sensitive young girl. She's less villainous in the musical, though. **Abled in the Adaptation: Unlike in the book, she isn't allergic to water. It's just a rumor people spread about her. This allows her to be Spared by the Adaptation when she fakes her own death. **Adaptational Attractiveness: In the musical, she's much more beautiful than the ugly, hook-nosed witch that we're used to. The same can be said for Book!Elphaba, but only marginally (see Beautiful All Along). **Adorkable: In the first act of the musical. Oh, she's got a biting tongue alright, but she's also socially awkward and her attempts to interact with people, as well as her mannerisms when excited, come off as rather endearing. **Defrosting Ice Queen: Though it wasn't intended as the good deed that it was seen as (and it ends up backfiring [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished spectacularly] when it turns out that Nessa's a total Yandere), Galinda setting up Boq and Nessarose turned out to be the key to unlocking Elphaba's softer side, and the relationship between the two roommates changes almost instantly, at least in the musical version. **Disney Death: She only fakes being melted, actually falling down a trap door, and escapes Oz with help from Fiyero, although the two can never return. **Emotionally Tongue-Tied: In the Lion cub scene, Elphaba is so bewildered by the situation she starts blabbering frustratedly to Fiyero. **Evil Laugh: Depending on the actress portraying her, she's had that distinctive cackle from as far back as her schooldays. Nearly all versions have her develop it by the time she's become infamous. **Flower in Her Hair: Galinda puts one in her hair to show she can be pretty. Elphaba is so shocked by seeing herself as something other than repulsive, she runs off. **Hero with Bad Publicity: Without a doubt—it's basically the premise of the show. **Knight in Sour Armor: In the musical. She keeps fighting for what she believes is right even though she doesn't think it makes much difference. **Magic Misfire: Elphaba causes these far more often than she'd like. Most notably, her messing up an invulnerability spell in her panic and desperation to save Fiyero from being beaten to death, which ultimately turns him into a scarecrow. **Meganekko: In her days at Shiz in the musical. She loses the glasses during the timeskip between acts I and II. **Pimped-Out Dress: Her dress in the second half of the musical is meant to look like rags, but is pretty fancy, as the patchwork look required lots of beaded detail. An early version also had some ruffles and netting. **Seer: Seems to have this power in the musical; When she's envisioning in her head what her life would be like working with the Wizard, she predicts the fact that there will be a celebration all to do with her. (though she doesn't predict that said celebration will be her funeral.) She also senses her sister is in trouble upon seeing Dorothy's flying house. **The Snark Knight: She's sarcastic and introverted from the start, but at first, she has a distinctly idealistic streak ("The Wizard and I") — after "Defying Gravity", she evolves into a genuine, cynical Snark Knight. **Spared by the Adaptation: She dies in the novel, but survives in the musical. See Disney Death. **Then Let Me Be Evil: In "No Good Deed", she decides to stop trying to be good and instead be the Wicked Witch that everyone believes her to be. **Tragic Villain: The entire musical shows how an ostracized girl slowly became evil because of how society treated her. What's even worse is the fact that she never really did anything to deserve this treatment other than have an odd skin color, reject someone's ideologies based on her moral principles, and unintentionally cause damage to those she tries to help. When she turns Fiyero into a scarecrow, she finally snaps and fully embraces her evil nature. **Tsundere: Has traits of one in the musical. She's very vitriolic to almost everyone upon first meeting, but she gets awkward and sweet around people who she hopes to impress or who show her kindness. She even gets this textbook tsundere line:Elphaba: Where is Fiyero anyway? N-not that I expected him to say goodbye to me... **Voice Types: Is a classic, prime example of a mezzo-soprano "Belter". Most Elphaba actresses in the musicals are graded (by the fans) on the quality of: the end notes of "The Wizard and I", the long "Fi-''yer-o-o-o-o-o!" in "No Good Deed Goes Unpunished, and the end of "Defying Gravity", particularly the final line and the last belted "Ah-''aah-ahhhh!" **Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: In the musical. No matter how hard she tries to do good in the world, it ends up blowing up in her face spectacularly, especially when her magical powers get involved. Eventually she hits her breaking point. ***Anti-Villain: In the book, Elphaba is actually okay with innocent people being hurt while she's furthering her cause, and ends up going mad. ***Child by Rape: In the book, at least. In the musical, it still could be, with the line "have another drink of green elixir," but it's more interpreted as both parties getting drunk and having a mutual love affair. ***Hermaphrodite: Book Elphaba is strongly implied to have been born mildly intersex despite successfully giving birth to a son later, and suffer from some degree of gender dysphoria. Besides her "mannish" features, she occasionally seems to get a little confused about what equipment her body is "supposed" to have. ***Villain Protagonist: The book has her genuinely going insane from all the failures of her life, making her into a very malevolent being by the time Dorothy shows up. She stops sleeping entirely, stalks Dorothy, kills a woman, threatens her former friends and when Dorothy and co. finally get to her castle, she's fallen into utter desperation. Very sympathetic, yes, but still quite villainous. ***Well-Intentioned Extremist: Book-verse, Fiyero calls her out on it. She's okay if "accidents" happen when trying to make her point. *** **